Senator Ali Ndume has stated that the rise in the dollar is beneficial to the federal government, News About Nigeria reports.
The senator made this assertion while speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.
He noted that the government is benefiting from the naira’s depreciation against the dollar, stating that that is the reason why the naira continues to depreciate against the dollar.
Ndume said rather than losing out on the naira depreciation against the dollar, the federal government is gaining more revenue to fund its 2024 budget.
“Don’t forget that this budget is a ‘dollarized’ budget, especially in terms of income. And when it comes to the terms of the expenditure, it’s in naira.
“So if we are getting our money in dollars and the value of the dollar is up, that means we will have more naira in terms of what we spend because we are not spending in dollars, we are spending in naira, while we are getting our revenue in dollars,” he said.
He further maintained that Nigeria’s primary export, crude oil, remains highly sought after internationally, noting that the nation stands to gain from the prevailing exchange rate between the dollar and the naira.
“Truly, the value of naira against the dollar has fallen but we are selling our major product that generates income in dollars. And that means any dollar we get now will also be valued at the current dollar-to-naira exchange rate.
“So if you do the analysis critically, it may mean if you balance it up, we may have more money to fund our budget. So technically, Nigeria is even benefiting from the dollar-to-naira hike,” Ndume added.
